In a small piece of news over the past couple of days, it was announced that the MLBPA has voted on its newest executive subcommittee – and it now includes a current White Sox player.
Lucas Giolito will join Jack Flaherty, Lance McCullers, Austin Slater, Ian Happ, and Brent Suter as the new faces of this subcommittee, with holdovers Marcus Semien and Francisco Lindor remaining on the committee. Max Scherzer, Andrew Miller, Jason Castro, Zack Britton, James Paxton, and Gerrit Cole will no longer hold positions on this committee.
Players will spend two years in these positions which they were voted into by their peers.
The subcommittee works closely with senior union staff, such as Tony Clark and deputy director Bruce Meyer, and has a large say in numerous areas, including rule changes and, perhaps most notably, collective bargaining with ownership. When the union decides matters like accepting a new collective bargaining agreement, 38 players carry a vote — the eight players on the subcommittee, and the 30 player reps.
The previous group – which included the six outgoing members – was the group in power when it came to the contentious lockout negotiations last offseason. Most notably, this subcommittee came under fire during the final round of voting that eventually ended the lockout. In the vote on the league’s proposal, 26 of 30 teams voted to end the lockout and accept a deal, with the Yankees, Astros, Cardinals, and Mets being the only ones to veto it. In addition, the players’ board voted 26-12 in favor of the deal. However, the executive subcommittee voted against the deal 8-0. So, the overall voting body effectively overruled their subcommittee – which is something that is rather unheard of and led to a lot of fan backlash over the makeup of the committee.
Clearly, this is a position that comes with a lot of stress, especially following the negotiations, so it’s not a surprise to see a large turnover. It’s also worth noting that Scherzer stopped serving in his role immediately after the lockout.
It’s also interesting to note that of this new group of players, only two players have Scott Boras as their agent (McCullers, Semien). On the previous committee, five players had Boras as their agent (Semien, Cole, Scherzer, Britton, Paxton). Much has been reported about the potential influence that Boras has had over the years within the league, and in particular, in the subcommittee, so it is worth pointing out such a drastic change in agent makeup among these eight players after the negotiations. Essentially, it doesn’t feel like a coincidence.
At the end of the day, for Giolito personally, it’s definitely an honor that says a lot about how Giolito is viewed amongst his peers around the league. Giolito’s official title will be “Alternate Pension Committee Representative.”
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Featured Image: Joe Ruffalo (@jruff96)
